Walking on Dartmoor. Earle John

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      Start 1. Follow the unfenced road west until it starts to turn south and then strike up to Sharp Tor ahead of you.

      Start 2. Follow the path that leads towards Sharp Tor from the car park but do not go right to the bottom of Easdon Combe. Instead contour the head of the little valley, cross the stream and aim at the impressive Tor.

      From the top of Sharp Tor you have magnificent views looking east and south-east right down to the coast across the South Hams; 200m (650ft) below you the Double Dart Gorge can be seen with its interlocking spurs. On the opposite side of the wooded valley you can make out the low, squat shape of Bench Tor (Benjy Tor is its old, correct name).

      To descend straight down to the road leading to Rowbrook Farm is an awkward, rocky route so you will find it easier to drop back down westwards to the Row Brook and then follow the stream down to the farm.

      You will need to ask permission at the farm to pass through the gate marked ‘Private. No right of way’, but there is usually never any problem. Beyond this gate, after the barn wall, you will pass an intriguing number of old farm implements including an old binder for cutting corn and tying it into sheaves.

      Walk straight down the field to another gate that leads onto open land. Please do not forget to close it.

      The well-defined path now descends to the right. Follow this steeply down to river level. To your left you will see the towering granite rockface of Luckey Tor. In fact this name is a corruption of Lookout Tor for it is said that smugglers used to pass this way and that the Tor made a good lookout for them to watch the Customs men. It is also known as Eagle Rock from the days when eagles wheeled and soared over Dartmoor and, I presume, built their nests here. There are some hard rock climbs on the face.

      It is worth going down to the river to look at the water roaring down through a narrow cleft and into Blackpool, a deep and mysterious basin.

      Now turn right and follow the path upriver on the left bank. After a while the path becomes quite difficult where the flood has washed sections of the bank away and exposed large platforms of granite. On the bend of the river and also the path, just before Combestone Island, keep a sharp lookout for a strange, stone-lined pit with long, low walls running from it. This is a type of vermin trap that drowned the predators caught in it unlike the other vermin traps (see Appendix A) which used a trip catch to shut a slate gate so that the warrener could kill the animals caught himself.

      Keep along the path until you reach the point where the East and the West Dart meet. Unless you are a gregarious person or are dying for a cup of tea you will probably wish to avoid this crowded, popular tourist spot! Keep then on the right side of the wall of the enclosure and at the far end do not go through the gate but turn right up the steep path on Yartor Down. The road swings away from the path but, as you climb, look away to your left and you will see a deep track between the road and where you are. This is one of the old ways across Dartmoor which crossed the rivers by the clapper bridges and linked important villages and towns.

      Dartmeet

      Soon you should see a large, flat boulder beside the old track. This is the Coffin Stone and as the name suggests is where the bearers rested the coffins of people who had died in the more remote parts of Dartmoor, as they carried them on their last journey to be buried in Widecombe churchyard. You will have experienced the steepness of the hill yourself so it will be easy to imagine the back-breaking task of carrying a coffin up here. They still had 6km (3.5 miles) to go! If you look closely you will see initials and crosses carved on this historic stone.

      Continue up the path to the top of the hill to where your car will be waiting for you.

      If you started at Bel Tor Corner, you can walk along the road to your car or follow the first part of this walk from the car park to Sharp Tor and then down directly to Bel Tor Corner.

WALK 3

      Michelcombe, Sandy Way, Holne Ridge, Hapstead Ford, Chalk Ford, Scorriton (or back to Michelcombe)

Start	In the village of Michelcombe, Map Ref 696689.
Distance	10.5km (6.5 miles)
Grade	Moderate

      Please be careful to park without causing an obstruction or blocking gateways. There is the Church House Inn where Archbishop Ramsey used to stay. You will pass, or not as the case may be, the Tradesman's Arms at Scorriton towards the end of the walk.

      This walk starts by heading west up the lane from the small village of Michelcombe. Just by a gate a track runs off north to Hone Moor by Great Combe. You go straight on. The lane now becomes a rocky track climbing quite steeply until you reach a gate called Lane Head. It is here that a path from the Mardle joins the track which is the alternative route for the return journey if you wish to miss out Scorriton. It is also at this gate that you move out from the enclosures onto the open moor.

      A few hundred metres on you will pass over the dry bed of the leat of the Wheal Emma mine. If you look at the map you will see that it is a remarkable bit of engineering as it contours for miles round Holne Moor to above Ventford Reservoir and beyond. However, away to your left the leat steepens to run down to the Mardle where the water was once used in the copper mines there.

      From now on the track you are following is called the Sandy Way which is one of the ancient trackways of Dartmoor. It was probably used by early travellers going between towns as far distant as Ashburton and Tavistock. Certainly farmers and tinners used the track to move between Holne and Swincombe and on to Princetown. When French and American prisoners were held at the prison at Princetown many local people travelled there to barter with the prisoners and the Sandy Way was the easiest way to get there in the early 19th century from this south-east corner of the moor.

      When you reach the disused tin mine workings with the deep gullies the Sandy Way peters out but in the old days it would have worked its way round Aunee or Avon Head to Skir Hill, Ter Hill and then on; there are still traces of it.

      You need now to aim towards Ryder's Hill, south-west, and drop down to Mardle Head and the tin workings there, just above Hapstead Ford. The ford is a river crossing associated with ancient pathways on Dartmoor for travellers who wished to reach farms and villages further to the south. You should be able to get across the Mardle СКАЧАТЬ